Basic Details
RESEARCH ABOUT THE MIDI FUNCTIONS AND HOW IT'S BORN
Your name
MATTEO FONTANA
Your Pathway Combination
DIGITAL ART AND MUSIC TECH
The title of your etude
MIDI SIGNAL AND THE FUNCTIONS
A short statement of intentions
To get a comprehensive knowledge of the connectivity between a various sorts of devices and video clips, I have made a research through few web sites and books.
Write about:
I discover that there is more than one way to get this possible one of those is the MIDI format.
This signal is only one of the ways possible but it is even the most common.
MIDI data is digital, meaning that the information sent is in the form of multiple on/off signals. It is not in the form of an analog audio signal. MIDI data can only travel on direction through a single MIDI cable. Most MIDI devices are equipped with both MIDI input and MIDI output. This means that electronic instruments with MIDI capabilities are able to transmit and also sometimes play MIDI data. MIDI specifies 16 separate channels, allowing for the control of up to 16 different instruments at simultaneously. Communication between MIDI devices is done through the passing of messages, which composed of 3-byte (24 bit) strings. These messages are transmitted at a rate of 31.25 kbaud, or 31,250 bits of information per second. When a computer, sequencer, controller, or other MIDI device receives the MIDI data, the data is decoded and interpreted. MIDI capable instruments respond to messages according their current mode.
MIDI it’s born in 1983 but at the beginning it is been used only to connect music devices such keyboard and synthesizers, more recently MIDI it’s been used to control Software instruments, drum machines, and so on. Without MIDI you couldn't play them as instruments. But MIDI support isn't limited to these applications: many VJ and live video applications, such as motion dive. tokyo (distributed by Edirol), Resolume, Arkaos VJ, and Vidvox Grid also support MIDI input for control and live visuals. MIDI has even found its way into some 3D applications, including Maya.
But MIDI is also a technology that represents music in digital form. Unlike other digital music technologies such as MP3 and CDs, MIDI messages contain individual instructions for playing each individual note of each individual instrument. So with MIDI it is actually possible to change just one note in a song, or to orchestrate and entire song with entirely different instruments. And since each instrument in a MIDI performance is separate from the rest, its easy to "solo" (listen to just one) individual instruments and study them for educational purposes, or to mute individual instruments in a song so that you can play that part yourself.
All this functions have the same application for video based installations but often is ignored, in fact
all the MIDI controllers have even more application-agnostic than MIDI software, because as long as you ignore the labels on the knobs and faders, you can use MIDI devices for whatever you want. Some have standard MIDI ports, some have USB or FireWire connections for computers, and many these days have both. Keyboards were among the first MIDI hardware and still make up a big chunk of the market, but the need to control computer software with something more useful than a keyboard has led to lots of knob- and fader-covered control surfaces, hardware designed for use with live visual apps and VJ performances, virtual turntables for scratching, MIDI wind instruments, MIDI guitars, MIDI drums, foot pedals, wireless controllers, and even MIDI accordions. MIDI can also be found on some light boards, and other control specifications used for lighting, like DMX, can be interfaced with MIDI using an adapter. (LanBox, http://www.lanbox.com, is a particularly useful vendor for MIDI-to-DMX products suitable for installations as well as theatrical applications.)
MIDI hardware is generally oriented toward performance, but what that performance is can be entirely up to you. If you enjoy playing a MIDI wind instrument but would rather control video than make sound, you can; just select the port for the device you want to use in any software that supports MIDI input.
